Oriki a Oggún (2019/rev.2023) by Louis Franz Aguirre
I - Oriki: Preludio de la Adoración
II - Toque para la presencia Divina
Trombone: Antonio Jiménez Marín.
Live recording at the OpenDays Festival, Denmark.

ORIKI A OGGUN (2019/rev.2023)

Songs under a Snow of Ashes (2019-2023) by Louis Franz Aguirre
for soprano & trombone
I - A letter to Henri Cazalis
II - HOW I LONG TO SEE
III - Yellow rose
IV - You are always in my heart and soul.
V - Herodias
VI - ORIKI A EGGUN
Hekate Duo (Soprano: Viviane Hasler; Trombone: Antonio Jiménez Marín).
Live recording at the OpenDays Festival, Denmark.

Songs Under A Snow of Ashes (2018-2023)

'The Last Bit of the Moon' is a semi staged choral prologue to accompany Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Riders to the Sea'. Read more about it here: https://www.operaupclose.com/riders-to-the-sea

The Last Bit of the Moon

Rip Da Set

Second piece of a miniature suite written for Kaija Quartet, and inspired by the work of Colette Thomas.

Kaija Quartet :
Camille Garin, Madeleine Athané-Best : violin
Maëlle Desbrosses : viola
Adèle Viret : cello

𝐋𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭…cette aube ou la lumière terrorise et le dégout retient captif

Gravado ao vivo no Espaço QC,  Porto, no dia 20 de março de 2025.
Áudio de Helena Margarida; 
Compositor Rúben Borges; 
Intérprete Coletivo Phoebus (Luís Miguel Leite, José Teixeira e Leonor Marinho); 
Art de Rúben Borges.

Ruins On My Chest - Rúben Borges [version 2]

Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in celebration of their 50th Anniversary as part of their 2023/24 Season' Grand Tour of Scotland with principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev. Premiered at Perth Concert Hall and Theatre on 27th September 2023. Recored live at Glasgow's City Halls on 29th September 2023.

The Origin of Colour takes its inspiration from a short story in Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics series called Without Colours, which tells a surrealist tale of the creation of colour on Earth. In the beginning, the world exists in whites and greys where objects and people are shapeless entities bumping into each other in translucent static hues. Suddenly a meteor rips through the sky illuminating the world for the first time highlighting purple chasms and orange mountains; earthquakes emit blue fluids to form the first oceans; the violet Sun sets for the first time; the first black night reveals the stars; newly formed pink clouds unleash golden lightning; post-storm rainbows appear and now the world is full of blue skies, yellow fish, green trees and red fires. Calvino’s story is, above all, a love story between two characters who find and lose each other in the chaos of the Earth’s formation of colour. The dazzling quality of these new colours leaves one particular character in fear of this chaotic new world, and they decide to hide in a cave where colour did not reach. One final earthquake collapses the entrance to the cave leaving them isolated from their lover and the colourful new world on the other side.

This new showpiece for Chamber Orchestra attempts to capture Calvino’s creation story in a musical journey that maps the creation of colour on Earth from the hollow, translucent landscape described by Calvino to a kaleidoscopically vibrant world which is both beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.

Thumbnail: From 5 panels of artwork inspired by The Origin of Colour by artist Kirsty Matheson

The Origin of Colour for Chamber Orchestra (Live Excerpt with SCO & Maxim Emelyanychev)

Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as part of their 21/22 Season. Premiered by Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sir James MacMillan on 11th November 2021 at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. This excerpt was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and performed live by Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by SCO Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze on 1st November 2024 as part of the Nordic Music Days Festival 2024 at City Halls, Glasgow.

Death in a Nutshell is inspired by Frances Glessner Lee’s “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death” which are a series of 20 re-creations of real-life crime scenes that she intricately fashioned in minute detail within dollhouse-sized rooms. These macabre miniature death-scenes were painstakingly handcrafted by Lee throughout the 1940/50s as a learning tool in forensic and crime scene investigation, and often depict a domestic scenario furnished in 1940s décor in which the body of a doll (or dolls) can be found. Each diorama presents a set of clues regarding the events that led up to the doll’s demise including witness statements and important details about the time of year and even the temperature of the room; all of which offer clues to the solution of a puzzle that can be solved from the objects found within each room. These studies have proved so successful that they are still used today and are housed at the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Officer in Baltimore, where the true solutions are kept firmly under lock and key.

This piece focuses on 6 of Lee’s grisly Nutshell Studies in an attempt to represent 6 different crime-scenes as musical miniatures that hint at a variety of elaborate clues and evidence which form their potential solutions. The work is constructed like a house in which we promenade from room to room, starting in the parlour and wandering all the way to the attic, where we find a deceased doll (or dolls) in each room as well a new mystery to be solved. This morbid tour unfolds as follows:

1. Malleus Dei (in the Parsonage Parlour)

2. The Colossus (in the Kitchen)

3. A Drowned Sorrow (in the Dark Bathroom)

4. Interlude pour l’esprit de l’escalier (on the Stairs)

5. The Family Plot (in the Three-Room Dwelling)

6. Hanging upon your every word (in the Attic)

Leave no stone unturned, no note unscrutinised, “convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell”, in this macabre collection of miniature pieces inspired by a dollhouse unlike any other.

Death in a Nutshell for Chamber Orchestra (Excerpt) - 1.Malleus Dei (in the Parsonage Parlour)

《MANY LOVE》—— 曼尼洛夫 × YEHAIYAHAN

在迷幻的星河里，爱是唯一的光标。

当曼尼洛夫的嗓音穿透合成器的迷雾，当YEHAIYAHAN的声线在电子涟漪中浮沉，《MANY LOVE》便成了一场关于爱情的集体幻觉。这张专辑用迷幻的节拍解构爱的多面性——炽热、恍惚、占有、释然——在虚实交错的声场中，每一段旋律都是心动的残影，每一句歌词都是未寄出的情书。  
戴上耳机，让心跳同步808的震颤。在失重的贝斯线与漂浮的人声里，你会遇见无数个自己：偏执的、温柔的、溃散的、重生的。

MANY LOVE - YEHAIYAHAN & MANNYLOFF

Premiere : July 13th, 2024, Soltiär, Mozarteum University, Salzburg
Ensemble Multilatérale and Les Métaboles

S-MS-T-B, hp, vla, vc, cb

Vu·Eu·Connu(2024) - for ensemble and voices (S-MS-T-B)

for amplified marimba and fixed media
Performed by Glynn Forrest and Edit Point Ensemble, City Halls, Glasgow, Feb 2013
Written May 2011

The txalaparta (‘tx’ is pronounced ‘ch’) is an ancient instrument from the Basque Country of Northern Spain. It is comprised of one or more wooden planks laid horizontally on a frame. The instrument is played with sticks which are held vertically and requires two players to be played. These players are called ‘txalapartariak’.

My piece is inspired by the instruments ‘ timbre and by the idea that the music cannot happen without collaboration. The tape part is solely drawn from recording sessions with percussionist Robbie Eyre, who I would like to extend my thanks to. I would also like to thank Amaia Sarasola and her family, whom I stayed with in the Basque country, summer 2010.


Txalapartariak

Francesca is a composer & community musician, active in Japan and the UK.  http://francescalelohe.com/
フランチェスカ・レロイ：日本・英国に活動しているの作曲家

Txalapartariak

Francesca Le Lohe

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